While I will probably never find myself in the latter scenario, the first three, and especially the first two, are common self-inflicted circumstances for me now. As I was trying to figure out what to post for this week I felt as though I did not have anything important to say, and it was the same feeling I got earlier in the week when I was brainstorming "future projects" (something I have to discuss for my tenure review). Although blogging and scholarly articles and casual conversations may be quite different, I do believe the ability to have something to say comes from a certain habit of mind.
This habit of mind consists of:
1) CURIOSITY. I believe that to have interesting and fresh things to say, you have to ask a lot of questions, which means you have to be curious about what you see, read, and hear all around you. I tend to get so busy in a day that I breeze past things that should require a second look (group of kids on skates with movie cameras in our street), or don't stop to find out more (like seeing an interesting headline in the New York Times, but not actually reading the article).
2) REFLECTION. When I hear someone say something worthwhile I suspect they have thought about it before. Setting aside some "still time," as I call it, to reflect on things that have happened to you in a day can cause you to realize what's been in your head that you didn't even realize you were thinking about. getting it down on paper, of course, is a must. Perhaps 19c writers were so amazing because they kept journals.
3) INTERACTION. Other people will draw your attention to things you didn't notice, will challenge the same old way you have always thought about things, will reinforce something you were already thinking but hadn't been able to put into words, and all other sorts of things that will sharpen, enhance, and deepen your own interesting ideas. I call this a habit of mind because I think you have to interact in an intentional way that is other-oriented. You should do more listening than talking and you should not immediately discount what other people suggest. And, you should try to interact with people who would not normally make your "friend" list because they are too different from you.
So as I sat here tonight wondering why I have nothing to say, I thought about how maybe I'm not intentional enough about these particular habits of mind: curiosity, reflection, and interaction. We'll see if my blog posts get more interesting if I start doing these three things. If you have habits of mind that help you come up with interesting ideas or things to say please share!
2 comments:
Thanks for the reminder Kristin, to be more intentional about awareness of and interaction with the world around me. I confess that I do too little of that as well. If you want to interact anytime soon, I am up for a Google chat!
And yet you found some very illuminating things to say! I guess we could consider blogging an intentional discipline.
In connection with reflection, I read this book over the summer about good ideas by Steven Johnson, and he had a really cool chapter where he talked about how it's one thing to keep a journal, but what sets really smart people like Darwin apart from other smart people is that they go back and READ their journals.
Post a Comment